The Most Impactful Cards in Modern in 2024
As we near the end of the calendar year, we should take an opportunity to reflect on the aggregation of all we have seen, experienced, and endured in the Modern format in 2024. Starting with
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
If not for this card’s banning within a few months of its release, I would almost certainly be putting it higher. Nadu was an admitted designed-for-Commander powerhouse that proved to be too powerful for both Modern and Commander, given its synergies with Equipment with zero-cost equip abilities, like
Yes, Nadu Summer was nearly the demise of the format with infamous games like Brain Braun-Duin’s, which went for 40+ minutes on stream during the Pro Tour. Long, non-deterministic turns,
Leyline of the Guildpact
Leyline seemed like the one-hit wonder card from
Naturally, post-MH3, Guildpact has become a rather irrelevant card alongside the archetypes it supported, to no surprise whatsoever. Having said that, it’s a really fun piece in many Commander decks, particularly ones that use every part of the color pie. If not for its success being so short-lived in Modern, perhaps this could be ranked a little higher.
The Surveil Lands
Yeah, I’m counting this land cycle as “one card.” In hindsight, Markov Manor as a set, while received lukewarmly by players upon its release, seems to have had the most persistent impact on the format next to MH3, in no small part due to a full cycle of 10 new fetchable dual lands that Surveil 1 upon entry.
Across all formats, large and small, these Surveil Lands have seen play. Every corner of the game with access to fetchlands has an incentive to play these, especially more tempo-oriented decks. Really nice cards that still give players and speculators a reason to crack Karlov Manor packs.
Goryo's Vengeance
I suppose you could also put
No longer is Goryo’s Vengeance a vehicle to wreak havoc by reanimating
Ral, Monsoon Mage
Kind of like Goryo’s Vengeance and Psychic Frog being relatively interchangeable in their position in this ranking, you could interchange Ral and
The reason this card isn’t higher is because its presence in the meta was relatively tied to it being the best counter to Nadu when Nadu was at its peak in the format. Once Nadu was banned, and the format warped around the Energy mechanic, Storm-based strategies somewhat fell off a cliff. Having said that, it’s still viable enough for discussion and inclusion on this list.
Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury
Okay, so the next three cards (inclusive of this one) are all on this list because of Energy. Energy as an archetype in Modern has posed a real problem for the health and diversity of the format. If
Phlage is just powerful. It’s a
Ocelot Pride
Currently, Ocelot Pride is the most expensive single card by market price in Modern Horizons 3. Really let that sink in. In a set that came out of the gate swinging with Nadu and Phlage, once the dust settled post-Nadu, Ocelot Pride has become almost unequivocally the most in-demand mythic rare from the set (emphasis on mythic here).
This card is possibly the most powerful one-mana non-legendary creature ever printed that’s also legal in the Modern format. Not only is City’s Blessing in Modern problematic on its own, but pushing it as far as WotC did with Ocelot makes for one of the most oppressive and pushed cards Modern has ever seen. Remember the halcyon days when Ragavan was seen as problematic? Those were good times.
Guide of Souls
This card’s placement on the list is probably interchangeable with Ocelot Pride, as one could argue they’re both equally important in Energy shells. Guide of Souls, however, is the best single Energy dump in the deck, which can’t be said for Ocelot, which doesn’t care about the Energy mechanic explicitly on its own.
Guide cares about all the creatures you play, and rewards you with equal parts life and Energy for going wide, which Ocelot Pride does very easily. The recursiveness of Phlage feeds into this, as well as the synergies with
Cards like Guide epitomize how Modern as a format simply can’t handle Energy as a format-defining mechanic. It’s impossible to punish and interact with, and as Energy cards get pushed further and further in the design space, they simply become exponentially more difficult to deal with, and warp deck building accordingly.
Goblin Charbelcher
This might be a controversial pick, but one could very easily argue that the best part of MH3 was the slew of new MDFC cards. Having such a high density of MDFC cards in the format means that Belcher decks have legs that they never had before in Modern - or even in Legacy, which, prior to MH3, was the only format it really saw play in.
In a format that lacks the free interaction packages available in Legacy (
In a potential world where Energy loses format prevalence and
The One Ring
Come on, now. Was this even surprising? It shouldn’t be. The One Ring has been objectively the most powerful card in the format since it was released. “One ring to rule them all” is a tagline that applies as equally to the Lord of the Rings franchise as it does the Modern format.
Every deck that can play The One Ring justifiably does. Energy may be killing format diversity, but The One Ring is killing card diversity at a scale that is unjustifiable, especially in decks that have no right to capitalize on it as much as they can, like Amulet Titan. Needless to say, we look forward to a Modern meta without The One Ring clogging up four slots in almost every deck.
Concluding Thoughts
The state of Modern in 2024 was not one of optimism or positivity. Lots of things went wrong that almost all stem back to direct-to-Modern sets like
Further Reading:
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.
